This is not a joke: Materazzi to FC Brasov!

It’s rather a sign that Giuseppe is a proud man, who doesn’t want to ask his son, Marco, for some cash, when he needs it. Sorry for the strange and maybe offending opening line (ok, and for the deceiving title as well!), I hope Marco won’t kick me with his chest in the head, but the guy that made the connection between FC Brasov and the experienced Italian coach must have taken a lot of money to convince Materazzi senior to come to Romania. Not to mention that the former coach of Lazio or Sporting Lisbon (he also trained a number of mediocre/unknown squads lately) has been challenged to qualify for a place in Europe right away. I’ll explain everything:

FC Brasov parted ways with 17 (seventeen) players this summer, 5 regular starters went to Rapid, 1 to Steaua, 1 to Dinamo, 1 to CFR, 1 retired, all the good guys that missed out on Europa League in the past to seasons are gone. The team can count now on two defenders, one midfielder and two strikers who have at least some experience in Liga I, and I consider this team the first relegation candidate for next season. Which, by the way, starts in less than a month. So this should better be a nice practical joke, staged by FC Brasov’s official website and the top newspapers in the country!

Radu Baicu

• 15 years of continuous work in scouting, for top clubs and companies;
• Worked for clubs like Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Hannover 96, covering the Romanian market;
• Worked for Birmingham based company ‘The Scouting Network’ (www.tsn.co.uk) as a football scout;
• Worked for Zurich based company Boutique Football as a scouting network coordinator;
• International scout for Young Boys Bern for 2 years, covering Eastern European football.
• Working for the past 5 years as an international scout for a top French club.